ALFRED, Maine - A 21-year-old man charged with killing his mother, stepfather, and half-brother will undergo a psychological evaluation, a judge ordered yesterday at the man's initial court appearance.
Matthew Cushing appeared in York County Superior Court on three counts of murder and one count of arson. He is accused of fatally stabbing the three family members last Wednesday and then setting their Old Orchard Beach home on fire. Cushing wore a bandage on one hand and looked straight ahead as Justice Paul Fritzsche read the charges. He avoided eye contact with other relatives who were in the courtroom holding hands and crying during the brief hearing.
Cushing was represented by a court-appointed lawyer, Joel Vincent of Portland, and did not enter a plea. Cushing is charged with killing his mother, Carol Bolduc, his stepfather Christopher Bolduc and his half-brother, Joshua Bolduc, 15. Until late last year, Cushing was a student at the University of Maine.
His college friends said the crime doesn't fit with the Cushing they knew. "I had never, ever seen anything like this coming," said Shawn Coulombe, a University of Maine senior from Augusta and one of Cushing's closest friends.
Coulombe told the Portland Press Herald that he spent several hours with Cushing watching TV and hanging out on Tuesday, the day before the stabbing deaths.
Others described Cushing as well liked, with good parents and a close relationship with his half-brother. Documents indicate there was friction between the Bolducs and Cushing because they disapproved of his plan to leave school and to visit a friend in London and go backpacking in Europe.
